Both the public and private TV stations in Nigeria are grossly underfunded.
I am speaking from professional experience since I started my career in the largest TV network in Africa, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) as the youngest professional scriptwriter for TV in Africa at 18 and from the 1980s and in 1998 worked as an Independent Production Manager of "Money Wise" on the private DBN TV for two years when I was 35.
When I look at both the public and private TV stations in Nigeria, I shake my head is disappointment. The underdevelopment of NTA in programmes is embarrassing when compared to the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC).
The federal government gives peanuts to the NTA and expect the NTA network of over 36 TV stations to produce world class programmes, because they are clueless about the economics of the TV industry which can be learned from the more advanced TV industry of South Africa.
If the public and private TV stations in Nigeria are producing great content for entertainment and enlightenment of the best standards, they will be highly profitable to compete with MultiChoice, the South African company that operates DStv, the leading satellite television service in Sub-Saharan Africa and GOtv operating in several countries and has the popular streaming service, Showmax.
The NTA network and private TV stations in Nigeria have channels on DStv and GOtv instead of competing with MultiChoice. But how can they compete without the required infrastructure for a world class international TV industry with the budgets for the best TV productions and for the premium content that will increase their revenues from TV commercials and international distribution of their content.
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOOD MIRROR® Series.
